Outreach into Schools 2017

The School of Maths & Stats is passionate in partnering with high school maths teachers as
they inspire and equip future generations of mathematically literate Australians,
supporting the
Chief
Scientist's report (2014).

(1) Inquiring Minds

Presenters are available for school visits in the Sydney region, and further afield by special request.

The following topics are available in 2017.

Super(bats)man vs Bradman

Most cricket statistics are very simplified and don't go beyond the traditional batting
average and strike rates. Using data analysis, visualisation and clustering, we investigate
the concept of variance, correlations and principal component analysis, and what we
discover about cricket.

An introduction to expected values, with practical examples taken from common card and dice
games where outcomes are uniformly distributed. A more advanced level considers games where
outcomes are not uniformly distributed, for example basic stock market models.

Presenter: Merlin Ge

Level: Year 10 and up

Guesstimation

How many planes fly each day in the world? How much money is spent on pizza every Friday night in Australia?
This seminar involves a lot of audience interaction and live M&M games, as students learn about guesstimate (aka market sizing) and common methodologies for making more accurate estimates.

Presenter: Merlin Ge; Level: Year 10 and up

Forming the Platonic Solids

A hands on seminar where students learn about the beauty of
platonic solids
and then work in groups to form as many different shapes as possible.

A seminar which introduces students to theoretical (probability), methodologies (simulations and implementations) and applied statistics (visualisation),
showing off a range of career possibilities in mathematics.

Understanding our atmosphere requires not only chemistry, but mathematical models to describe the chemistry.
Investigating a recent project where we found interesting inconsistencies between the model and direct measurements.

Presenter: Maggie Corrigan

Chemical dynamics

For most chemical reactions we can write down an equation that tells us the reagents and products,
and can tell us how quickly this reaction should happen under different reaction conditions.
But the maths isn't always simple, and we don't just get a single solution to the equation showing interesting dynamics in the reaction.

Presenter: Maggie Corrigan

Puzzles and Riddles

Presenter: Merlin Ge

Level: Years 7-12

(2) Meet the four Professors

A special experience to inspire girls into careers in maths and stats.

Suits those considering a career in STEM as well as those thinking of dropping maths for the HSC.

"Our girls were buzzing all the way home on the train, talking about their future careers
in Maths!" (Bulli High, 2016).

(3) Mentoring HSC Ext2 Students

A program to encourage students doing Extension 2 Maths for HSC in schools with very small cohorts (3 or less students), especially low SES regions.

A postgraduate student from your local area will meet monthly to discuss any hard ideas and problems.

(4) Parent & Student Information Nights

Speakers are available for school visits in the Sydney region, and further afield by special request.

(5) Mega Maths Day

Mega Maths is about inspiring Year 10 students to see the importance
of mathematics in whatever career their choose.
Run on the Sydney University Camperdown Campus in June, students experience a range of workshops showcasing the importance of maths in different settings.

Registrations for Mega Maths Day 2017 will open online in March.

Bookings are open to Year 10 students and must be made by the classroom teacher.